moving
on2
Sarah, Year 10
Since the late 1990s Australian politicians and the media have
portrayed asylum seekers as; illegal, dangerous and a threat to
our society. This has been done through the use of dehumanising,
derogatory and erroneous descriptors (i.e. ‘illegal’, ‘queue jumpers’,
‘operation sovereign borders’). ‘We were told quite clearly that all information
that is to come out of the minister’s office, that they were to be no comments
issued through public relations or through the defence department that
would humanise these people.’ (Head of Public Affairs for the Department of
defence Jenny McKenry on the Tampa)
This has shaped the Australian public’s view of asylum seekers and has
made them faceless, voiceless and claims they are illegal. These terms have
been normalised in Australian society and has created a negative national
narrative, comprising of prejudices, negative attitudes and misconceptions
towards asylum seekers and refugees.
The original aim of our project ‘Mind Your Language’ was to educate the
school community to question the political manipulation of terms associated
with asylum seekers by the media in Australia. Due to increased knowledge
and experiences, this evolved in the second year of the project into a focus on
encouraging our wider community to challenge the political narratives that
dehumanise asylum seekers.
We have done this through a variety of initiatives the most notable being;
A two hour radio interview on Triple H, being filmed by UNICEF Australia,
being mentioned by the Australia Refugee Resource Centre, hosting our own
Junior Social Justice Forum and two very successful letter writing campaigns.
s
mind your
language